1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatuses for producing regenerative water and, more particularly, to an apparatus for producing regenerative water which periodically regenerates ion exchange resins which are contained in a water softening tank of a water softener and are deteriorated in water softening ability by the use of the water softener over a long period of time. The regenerative water producing apparatus produces regenerative water having appropriate salinity in such a way that a constant amount of raw water is always supplied to a regenerative substance block provided in the apparatus.
Furthermore, the present invention relates generally to methods of producing regenerative water and more particularly, to a method of producing regenerative water which comprises an operation of producing regenerative water by reacting raw water with a regenerative substance block in the apparatus for a preset regenerative water producing duration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, water softeners which are installed in houses or office buildings chemically remove hard-water ions contained in tap water and thus convert hard water into soft water. Typically, tap water contains a large amount of chlorine for purification purposes. In addition, due to factors, such as deteriorated pipes or water pollution, tap water may contain various kinds of heavy metals, such as iron, zinc, lead, mercury, etc., which have negative influences on the human body. Although such tap water containing a small amount of heavy metals is not fatal to the human body, when tap water directly contacts the skin of users washing their skin, metal ions contained in water are bonded to the fatty acids of soap, thus forming metallic impurities. Such metallic impurities contact the skin of users and thus induce skin disorders, such as allergy disorders, or promote skin aging.
To prevent these problems, various water softeners, which change tap water which is hard water into soft water in such a way that tap water passes through strongly acid cation exchange resins containing Na+ so that hard water ingredients, such as Ca2+ and Mg2+, are substituted for by the Na+ of the cation exchange resins, have been developed and mainly used for washing.
Such water softeners are operated using the principle by which hard water is changed into soft water by substituting calcium ions and magnesium ions, contained in the hard water, for sodium ions. For this, a soft water tank, which has ion exchange resins made of high molecular weight compounds containing sodium ions, is an indispensable element of such a water softener. Furthermore, such a water softener includes a regeneration tank which contains ion exchange resin regenerating material, such as salt, which forms sodium ions when it is dissolved in water. In detail, a large amount of ion exchange resins having fine grain (ball) shapes are stored in the soft water tank of the water softener. In this state, soft water is formed by continuously passing tap water through the soft water tank and by bringing tap water into contact with the ion exchange resins. As this process is repeated, a large amount of Na+ ingredients are removed from the ion exchange resins by continuous contact between tap water and the ion exchange resins. Therefore, to regenerate the ion exchange resins, salt water containing NaCl ingredients is supplied into the soft water tank.
A hydraulic automatic regeneration water softener which can automatically conduct the water regenerating operation was proposed. In the hydraulic automatic regeneration water softener, the regeneration rate changes depending on the water pressure of the regenerating operation. Thus, the duration of the regenerating operation must be controlled by a control program. However, because the flow rate of raw water supplied into the regeneration tank varies depending on water pressure, it is very difficult to maintain the concentration of the regenerative solution constant.
To provide satisfactory regeneration ability using a regenerative solution having inconstant concentration, the time taken to conduct the regenerating operation must be increased. However, in such cases where the time required for the regenerating operation is increased, the amount of regenerative substance used is increased; this is uneconomical.
Meanwhile, another conventional technique which produces regenerative water in such a way as to continuously move regenerative water was proposed. However, in the case where regenerative water only continuously moves, a regenerative substance is always in a state of being in contact with raw water, thus increasing consumption of the regenerative substance. In addition, the regenerative substance cannot sufficiently react with raw water, so that the concentration of regenerative water may become lower than the desired degree.
Another conventional technique in which supplied raw water temporarily stays around a regenerative substance has been proposed. However, in this case where raw water temporarily stays around the regenerative substance, only a portion of the regenerative substance may be dissolved at the location where the raw water resides temporarily; however, the other portion of the regenerative substance may not uniformly dissolve in portions where the water does not temporarily reside, resulting in the regenerative substance being wasted. Furthermore, a structure which can prevent raw water from being supplied in excess is indispensably required. Moreover, the apparatus of this technique must be configured such that even when an excessive amount of raw water is supplied, the regenerative water produced by the reaction between raw water and the regenerative substance remains behind, but the excess portion of the raw water can be exhausted out of the apparatus before it reacts with the regenerative substance. For this, a method of detecting that there is an excess of raw water is required.
Meanwhile, when supplying raw water into the regeneration tank, if the amount of raw water coming into contact with the regenerative substance cannot be controlled within a permissible range, the regenerative substance may be excessively consumed or the concentration of regenerative water may be different from a desired level.
Furthermore, when the amount of regenerative water produced by contact between raw water and the regenerative substance is excessive, if an excess of the regenerative water is not appropriately discharged and the regenerative water overflows the regeneration tank, the function and lifetime of the water softener may markedly deteriorate. In addition, the user may suffer involvement in an accident involving electric shock.
Therefore, a mechanical structure, rather than an electric structure, in which raw water can come into an even amount of contact with the regenerative substance, the concentration of produced regenerative water can be maintained constant, and an excess of the supplied raw water and an excess of the produced regenerative water can be appropriately discharged to the outside, is required.